Wednesday June 29th and it's farmer's day!

So apparently here in Peru there's a national holiday to appreciate the farmers and the food they provide which is the coolest thing ever, and it's today! For breakfast we had our usual chapla bread and then a little bit of birthday cake from last night which quickly turned into a small cake fight.

The small remnants of the cake fight on Katia's face

 It was a light hearted and fun way to start a day off. We had been planning a hike on this day for a long time up to this cross on the top of a ridge overlooking the city. It was a lovely hike but unfortunately we had to take a bus to get there which I predictably did not enjoy. As we climbed up and up in the racing bus, the streets got quieter and quieter, and once we got off the bus the cacophony of horns and car engines finally gave way to nothing more than the occasional dog bark or yelling and laughing of a group of kids ambling through the hillside neighborhoods. We started hiking and soon were above even the upper reaches of the city and into the forest.

A steep network of stairs connected the remote

neighborhoods and were the main form of 

transportation for the locals. They must have

really strong thighs!

Sometimes stray dogs, like the one you can kind of

make out on the left side of this stairway, would block

our way barking and growling and we would be forced

to find an alternative route.

 Katia looking out over her city

 KUte (Katia and Uziel)

 Yay we got to the huge white cross. At night it lights up

with tons of little bulbs in all different colors.

 We pose, having just discovered the timer function on the iphone.

Just two Colorado hicks on the other side of the world.

 Yay! 

 Watermelon in spanish is Sandilla

 It's hard to see in this photo, but there is a group of metal roofs on the hillside closest to the camera and we learned that the people there live without water and without electricity. There are no roads that go up that far so they must have to walk far down the steep slope to buy anything. 

 The way down was a little more precarious to say the least.

 The path snaked along the edge of a steep cliff, and Katia

was terrified of falling off. I was not a huge fan either.

Another precarious spot.

 The forests here are full of eucalyptus trees which

are not a native species but were brought over from

Japan and took like wildfire. The local trees don't

grow this high up so the eucalyptus have flourished 

without competitors. The only other plants we 

encountered were cacti and the occasional spiky

 bush.

It was late afternoon by the time we got back to 

the city and the long line of stairs that awaited us.

 Top of the notch bridge

 Back at the restaurant we tried Peruvian ceviche. The fish 

in this meal is not cooked with heat but instead with lemon

juice which has an extremely low pH which denatures the 

proteins in the same way in which heat would have.

 Alison finds the biggest wine bottle we've ever seen

in the back of the restaurant.

 The cross that we hiked to is on the ridge line that you

can see above the city.

 Culture shock! This man was selling candy dressed

as a woman to attract attention. The rubber balls that

he used would bounce down to his knees as he walked!

 One of the many pirated movie shops in Ayacucho,

here it is not illegal to sell pirated movies as Peru

does not make movies of it's own.

We made popcorn from corn kernels and came very, very 

close to making so many that they overflowed.

We watch the illusionist in Spanish!

Tuesday June 28th and Peruvians know how to throw a birthday party

Today I had an average morning and work day, but after I got done with work, me and Alison headed to Mono Sazón to help celebrate the birthday of Uziel's youngest sister, Gabby. Uziel actually has four sisters, and he's the second youngest. First we helped out Uziel's nephew Jean-Pierre blow up ballons and decorate, we had lots of fun kicking around the balloons like soccer balls. Then we went with him and Hernan to pick up the cake, I thought Hernan must be Uziel's sister Rosaria's husband but when I asked they told me he was Rosaria's half brother and I felt so bad! After letting me apologize profusely and feel bad that the entire way to get the cake I found out he was Rosaria's husband and they had just been tricking me!

Classic Alison

 Some of the cakes at the bakery where just amazing 

like this swan.

 While we were setting up a few of Katia's students, Diego, Dulce and

Yasquin showed up and they had brought us these ruins from the site

that we had visted a few weeks ago of the Wari. It was really nice of 

them to think of us and bring us something so precious.

The finished decorations. We had a delicious dinner of the staple

chicken rice and potatoes, but fancier than usual with family and

friends who were drinking pisco sour a local delicacy.

Katia and her sister in law Gabby

Jean Pierre teaching Alison how to dance the local Cumbia dance.

 Me and Jonathon who tried (and failed) to teach me. 

It was pretty late by the time we went home, but we were in

such a good mood that Alison and Katia had to stop to make

friends with this group of dogs.

June 27th and I go for a run

      Since the half marathon on the sixth of June I had not been for a run. This was strange to me as I had spent almost the entire months of April and May running every single day in preparation for the half marathon. The main reason is that Ayacucho isn't exactly the most inviting city to go running in. Between the thick smog that always blankets the houses, to the crazy streets, packed with cars and mottotaxis, and only sometimes having a sidewalk, to all the stray dogs and guard dogs that bark and chase you. But today Alison and I put all these fears aside and went for it.
      The 7:30 city was already bustling, the air was filled with the upturned dust from the half paved roads and smoke from the wood ovens that were making the morning's bread. The air was harsh on our lungs, and trying to catch our breath we ran down our road until we came to a bridge that carried the traffic over the trash filled river. Uziel had warned us that this bridge was a magnet for the homeless and drug addicted people who made their homes beneath it. We cautiously crossed but it wasn't people but guard dogs that jumped out and started chasing us up the road. The huge scary dogs were much faster than us and we ended up leaping across a huge ditch on one side of the road and clinging to the side of a rocky cliff for a few minutes until they finally lost interest. With all that adrenaline it was pretty easy to run the rest of the way up the steep hill and we ended up on a more populated road. The sidewalks were packed, and we had to weave in and out of people, goods, and live animals. The cat calling was particularly bad too in our running tights and shirts, and made us pretty uncomfortable, which I was annoyed at myself for feeling because that's what they wanted. After three accidental detours we eventually found the cobblestone road that lead back to our house and I was so happy to be home! Definitely more than we bargained for!

At work today in INABIF I was assigned the task of teaching Roberto to read. He is seven years old and I was shocked to find out that he didn't know how to read. When I inquired as to why, I learnt that he didn't go to school. Many kids bully him for this, teasing him, excluding him, and taking his things. A lot of the kids started telling me how lazy and bad he was for not going, and told me that he did have the option of attending a state sponsored school for street kids like him (he's also an orphan) but it's a tough, militaristic place that requires the children to give up all of their freedoms and become very disciplined and well behaved. For me it didn't seem as obvious that Roberto was a bad kid for not going, for someone who has only ever been able to do what he wants, to give up all of his freedom and suddenly live a life that's the complete opposite of everything he's known, especially when he doesn't have the help or guidance of parents seems very difficult. It's also hard because the older he becomes the more used to his life he is and the less he is likely to change. He already had no interest in learning to read or write and it was really hard to keep him focused. I can't help thinking that without education, opportunities in the future for this sweetest kid are dim.
   

                                                               Alison, Karen and me

The kids always want me to take their picture with Alison. This girl did an amazing french braid in Alison's hair.

       After we got off work, there was a guy waiting for us outside our workplace! It was Jose, the guy that we'd met three weeks ago when he stopped on his motorcycle to ask us if we were volunteers and how he could become a volunteer too. Apparently he'd spent the entire time in between trying to track us down which took both Alison and I aback. He had been to our house, and tried to get a job at INABIF all because he wanted to practice his English with us. Alison and I were reminded of our superstar status, everyone here wants to be friends with us, and we are constantly getting invited to people's houses or out for meals, but no one has gone to this length before just to contact us. It's a strange for me and Alison, we don't feel that we have as much to offer as people seem to think.

                           We met up with Uziel at his job in a local private school, and Jose came                                                 along too. Uziel was rehearsing the same play, street kids, but with older
                                                                               students.

 We went to get tea with Jose and found out that he will be going to 

Texas next year and is very nervous about his English. I thought he

was very good at English.

The main cathedral is beautiful at night!

       After all of that, we went back to Mono Sazon and helped the extended family shuck peas and then ate a small dinner of sausages and coffee with them before walking back to the house pretty late. On the way back we had a very interesting conversation with Katia and Uziel about the role of Catholicism in Peruvian culture and how it's relationship with the scientific community. Both Katia and Uziel were raised catholic, but Uziel has since stopped believing in God. He told me he's agnostic now, somewhere in the middle, some people are religious fanatics and others extreme scientists, and while both are very different both have very closed points of view. He thinks that both faith and science can be used to explain the world, and that it's better to have something to believe in rather than the terrifying unknown. I'm inclined to agree with him.

Sunday June 26th and I go to the upper barios

The morning was spent doing chores around the house, and somehow the monotony of the tasks made me feel like a real part of the family. I thought that doing laundry by hand would be awful, but it turns out to be fun. It's a great chance to talk and laugh with the others, and there isn't a better view than from our rooftop.

Then we made a salad for lunch, and I tried to help but failed miserably. It turns out you can't eat the peels of vegetables here because they could make you sick, but I only discovered this after I'd sliced and diced a whole cucumber and it took some time to fix the mistake.

                                                        Alison excited about a lettuce.

          After lunch Katia and Uziel were going to volunteer with an organization that brings together art instructors with kids who live high up in the upper barrios, where poverty is most desperate and give them free arts classes.
         Uziel is a theater teacher and is teaching his group of kids a play called street kids which sounds depressing, but is actually about the hopes, dreams and imagination of the kids and is really good.
         It's hard to make progress though because each time different kids keep showing up, and when Uziel tries to teach them they are very shy and never volunteer. It must be hard to have the self confidence needed to want to be an actor when so much else in your life is hard. These kids have to worry about the basics, shelter, food and water, and so art and acting is outside the norm for them, and for most of them this is their first experience acting.  can see why Uziel and the organization do the class, it teaches the kids how to express themselves in a new way and broadens their horizons on what they can do and achieve. At the end of the July there will be a competition with all the other plays from different neighborhoods, including the one that Katia and Alison are rehearsing.

                                                   It's an alpaca!!!! I saw an alpaca!

                                             The community center where we worked.

Uziel teaching the kids. There was also one kid, Antonio, who he was teaching to use stilts (you can see him in the background). Apparently when Uziel was a teen he used to make money in the summers by performing on stilts, who would have guessed!

                              The barrio after dark. Uziel told me it's a different reality here.

              The only way to get to these remote neighborhoods is to ride the rickety buses. This is absolutely the worst, and I have discovered I hate them. There are so many people on each bus that you can barely move, and I usually find myself barely holding on to anything to keep me stable as the bus speeds down the busy roads, careening around corners and not slowing down for bumps. Through all of this, I can't actually see what's happening because I'm to tall to see out the windows, and usually there's a layer of people around me anyway, so I can't prepare myself for any of the ways in which I'm thrown about and it's all I can do not to go flying into surrounding people.

             After work me and Uziel took the bus and then walked back to the restaurant. Uziel had to stop outside of every single restaurant because the one hundredth COPA America final (soccer) was on and it was Argentina vs. Chile. The streets were silent and everyone was packed into the restaurants watching excitedly.
        Along with the game there was a fancy dinner at Mono Sazon for all the people that had worked on the fair, the one that Katia & Uziel (or as I have now dubbed them KUte) had performed their play in. The dinner not surprisingly consisted of chicken, potatoes, and rice, which seem to be about the only thing people eat here. There must be a small chicken genocide by this point just for my meals. Everyone gave speeches about how much they enjoyed the fair and thanked different people which I thought was so nice, and exemplified the friendly, community culture in Peru, something we could work towards in the U.S.
         In the COPA America final, not one but two players injured themselves on the same gol post, and then it went to penalty shootouts after a 0-0 draw and star player Messi missed making Chile the winners. I cannot describe the reaction to Messi missing in the restaurant it was so crazy.